From Outside The Box
by V.Evergreen
Summary: For an outsider the crack team at SCU could not be more unusual. A stranger to the team tries to deal with the various quirks that arise when you spend too much time trying to figure out how to work with them.


It was Maggie Stewart's first day on the new job and already she was wishing she had just stayed in bed. Between the stress of transferring to Sacramento CBI and trying to get to her job in time the day was turning out to be awful. Already she was running late and she had managed to spill coffee on her white blouse; today was shaping up to be one of those days best forgotten.

Still she had resolved to try and be positive, so she had changed her blouse and walked a little more briskly to the CBI headquarters. She should have realised that her day wasn't going to improve from there. She was arranged to join Agent Carter's serious crime unit as the new researcher and investigator; the few times she had spoken to him on the phone he had come across as by the book and stern but fair and she was looking forward to meeting him and the rest of the team.

When she actually reached the front desk of the headquarters she was told that Agent Carter's team was already in the field working a case, would she mind waiting until they were done? She had told them of course she didn't, that she was content to wait but she must have looked dejected because the woman in front of the computer had cast a sympathetic eye over her harried appearance and quickly tapped something into her computer.

"There." She said printing a piece of paper and handing it to Maggie, "You've been transferred to work with Agent Lisbon's team until Agent Carter returns. Get a feel for the job before you start working for real."

Maggie had thanked the woman and had walked into the building to find Agent Lisbon, sure that her day had started to improve.

~o~o~o~

As it turned out it was rather easy to get lost in such a building as the CBI headquarters. With only the woman who had sent her's advice she quickly realised that she was no closer to finder Agent Lisbon than she was to getting used to the stifling heat in California. In a last ditch attempt she had asked a passing man if he knew where to find where she was meant to be.

The man was kind enough except when she said why she need to find them. His mouth had dropped open slightly in a comical way when she had told him she was going to working with them temporarily and before she knew it he had called one his friends over,

"She's going to work in SCU, Bill" he had said to his friend, "With Agent Lisbon and her _team_." His eyes widened at the word 'team' and Maggie was left completely confused until she looked at Bill who reached out one hand and rested it on her shoulder and spoke to her,

"I don't envy you." Was all he said before he walked away leaving the heaviest sense of foreboding that Maggie had ever felt.

~o~o~o~

When Maggie eventually found the office that read Teresa Lisbon on the door she hesitated for a moment before she knocked as she looked though the glass partition into the bull pen. She leaned back on her feet slightly and snuck a look in at the team who were working who would shortly be her temporary team mates, well she said working, there was an Asian man leaning back in his chair as he read a paperback, a ginger woman who was half heartedly typing on her keyboard and a man who was actually asleep on a couch in the corner. Shaking her head at the strangeness of it she knocked twice on the door and waited to be called in.

~o~o~o~

For Teresa Lisbon the day had been a write off. The heat that was coupled with the boredom of an extraordinarily large amount of paper work meant that nothing had been particularly interesting and there were no cases to work on to alleviate her the dullness of the day.

That was until she got a somewhat timid knock on the door which was unusual in itself, normally her team would knock and let themselves in or simply walk in like they owned the place. _Well, only one of them did that_, she thought wryly.

"Come in." She called.

~o~o~o~

Maggie's first impression of Agent Lisbon was that she struck on oddly authoritative figure. Within a few minutes of talking to her she knew that this woman wasn't one to mess with and she didn't intend to try. Lisbon had accepted her in to the team, only a little grudgingly which was better than she had hoped for. She didn't mind that overly though because she knew that her arrival and temporary coalition with the team would probably only cause more paperwork to land on her superior's desk.

"Come on then, let's introduce you to the team." She had said and Maggie felt all the apprehension that had only just stated to fade return in full force as she remembered the pity that had appeared on the faces of the two men when she had told them who she was going to be working with.

However, she kept all of her misgivings inside and followed the agent to the bull pen where all of its occupants looked at Lisbon expectantly.

"This is Agent Stewart," said Lisbon as she addressed her team, "She'll be working with us until Agent Carter and his team return." All gazes swivelled to Maggie.

"I'm Grace Van-Pelt." Said the ginger woman as she stood up to shake Maggie's hand and saving her from having to ask all of their names in turn. She had a firm grip on her hand but offered her a sweet smile.

The Asian man in the corner simply looked up from his book to introduce himself, "Cho." He said before he focussed on the print in front of him again. Maggie saw Grace roll her eyes at the man before a new voice interrupted.

"Rigsby." Said a man who she hadn't seen when she looked through the glass. He stood and leant across his desk to shake her hand and gave her a good natured smile.

She smiled and nodded at them all when they finished their introductions but they all focussed on the man sleeping on the couch in the corner. There was a beat of silence before Lisbon spoke again,

"I guess he really is asleep this time. That's Patrick Jane…hang on." Maggie watched as she strode over to the man and kicked the couch hard enough to make the man jump as he woke up. "Jane," Said Lisbon said with a little annoyance creeping into her voice, "Wake up!"

The man in question- Jane, sat up and looked around the room. His eyes quickly found Maggie and he looked up to Lisbon for an explanation,

"That's Agent Stewart, she's working with us until Carter and his team get back."

"Ah, right," he said as he got up and smoothed his jacket, "Patrick Jane." He walked over to Maggie and shook her hand wearing a wide smile that she instantly recognised as one that should not be trusted. Without a word to any of the others he wandered out of the room to where Maggie could see a small kitchenette.

"Don't worry," said Grace as she looked at Lisbon's slightly pained facial expression, "You'll get used to him."

~o~o~o~

The rest of the day was spent helping to lighten the load of paperwork and talking with Grace. She quite liked the other Agent and was kept laughing by some of the outlandish stories the woman had to offer, truth be told she wasn't quite sure if they were all true but they made for good entertainment.

It wasn't until mid-afternoon did anything out of the ordinary happen. She was sitting quietly, listening as Grace helped her come to terms with the layout of the online CBI system, which was dissimilar to the one she had always worked with when the sound of shouting interrupted them.

She looked up at Grace who to her surprise was smirking slightly as the shouting increased in volume, when she glanced at the other two she found that while Cho seemed to look no different Rigsby was trying to bite back a laugh.

Suddenly the door to Lisbon's office was thrown open it as Jane made a quick escape hindered only by the fact that he nearly got hit with a stapler that had been hurled after him. Looking distinctly unruffled, as though this was a regular occurrence, Jane flashed them all a smile as he walked though the bull pen and settle down on his couch.

~o~o~o~

As the day drew to a close Maggie was almost sure that it must have been a frequent event. Jane and Lisbon were standing by the doorway chatting amiably and laughing as though just hours previously she hadn't shouted at him and tried to hit him with stationary.

As her day at the office ended she rose from her chair, gathered her things and made to leave the building. She got no further than the door where Lisbon and Jane still stood as they had for the past fifteen minutes before Lisbon grabbed her attention.

"I just got an email from Agent Carter, he'll back by the end of the week so you'll be with us until then." She said as she looked at the taller woman, "Oh and you'll be needing a desk," She cast an eye around the bull pen, "feel free to use that one." She said pointing at the desk closet to the door that looked completely unused. Maggie thanked the senior agent and made her way down the hall as the conversation of the two people she had left behind floated after her,

"But Lisbon, that's _my _desk!"

"Oh come on, it's not like you ever use the desk or the computer!"

"Actually-"

"Playing minesweeper doesn't count, Jane."

~o~o~o~

Over the next two days Maggie found an easy sort of routine to go by seeing as no new cases had come up. She was mostly just helping the others with their paperwork seeing as she had none of her own but that quickly became dull and she found herself looking aimlessly around the bull pen. She worked away for a few hours in the morning looking around frequently but as she did so she noticed something strange. She narrowed her eyes as she thought about what it could mean. By her lunch hour she was sure there was some sort of pattern in place.

It seemed every time both Lisbon and Jane were out of sight someone from another division would come in and speak in low tones to either Rigsby or Cho, casting furtive looks around them as they did so. She noticed that it only happened when both Lisbon and Jane were absent because of the one time a guy from the mail room had been talking in hushed tones with Rigsby when Lisbon had walked in and asked what he was doing there. He stuttered a half hearted excuse and hurriedly left the room leaving Lisbon looking after him in surprise.

It wasn't until lunch that she had the opportunity to ask. She sat beside Rigsby while he ate and decided to just say it,

"So what were all those people talking to you and Cho about today?" Maggie hadn't anticipated having the pleasure of watching Rigsby choking on his food , but it was quite amusing to watch all the same.

"What people?" He asked too quickly to be believed, "We get people coming in and out of the bull pen all the time-"

"Might as well tell her." Came an indifferent voice. Maggie looked around to see Cho sit beside them both. She turned back to Rigsby looking at him expectantly. He looked torn for a few seconds before he leant towards her and motioned for her to do the same.

"Okay," he said in hushed tones, "there's been a betting pool going on for sometime. It started of small but now must teams are in on it."

"What's it for?" Maggie questioned, only to have Rigsby mumble something unintelligible.

"It's for how long it'll take for the boss and Jane to pull their act together." Said Cho in his normal voice while Rigsby shushed him.

"Why's it such a big deal?" She asked wondering why Rigsby was so paranoid about being overheard.

"Are you kidding?" He asked incredulously as he looked once again around the room, "She'd kill us all if she found out!" Maggie hoped that was an exaggeration but she knew that she wouldn't want to be the one to cross Teresa Lisbon.

"What about Jane? Would he mind?" She had barely seen or talked to the man for the three days she had been working on the same team as him but she had the funniest feeling that the rest of the team were trying to keep them apart, from some of the stories she had heard told she gathered this was mostly for her benefit.

Rigsby laughed at her question and even Cho managed a half smile.

"What?" She asked.

"Oh nothing," Said Cho with a trace of good humour in his voice, "just that Jane's in no position to complain seeing as he's already placed his bet."

~o~o~o~

On Maggie's last day before Agent Carter's return a case was presented to the team which found them all on a grassy verge overlooking a beach with a dead body sprawled only metres away. She stood with Grace on the sidelines of all of the activity, both waiting for forensics to clear away and for Jane to have a first look. They were chatting lightly about the weather when Grace looked over Maggie's shoulder with a stricken look,

"Oh no." She muttered as Maggie turned around to see the problem. What she saw was apparently Jane had got bored of waiting for forensics and instead had begun to approach the man who had found the body. Maggie was no expert on emotions or body language but she could practically feel the hostility that came off of him in waves. Jane however, did not. Or if he did he chose to ignore them.

He walked up to the man and began talking to him in what appeared to be a jovial manner with lots of smiling and laughing thrown in- a tad inappropriate for a murder scene but he persisted nonetheless. Maggie could only assume he was trying to get some sort of answer from the man but the man looked to be getting more and more angry by the second, his hands were balled up into fists by the time Jane had stopped for breath.

"He's going to get punched in the face…_again_." Muttered Grace sounded resigned to the inevitable, "I just know it."

"Should we step in?" Asked Maggie worriedly, wondering why Grace or no one else was stepping in to stop the first hit from being thrown.

"No," sighed Grace, "just let it take its course." Maggie cast an uneasy glance at the redhead before she looked back at Jane and the man. Sure enough within the minute Jane was reeling backward with a bloody nose as Lisbon sprang into action and had the man in handcuffs before Maggie could fully discern what had happened.

"Why didn't you step in when you knew he was going to get hit?" Asked Maggie curiously.

"Look at it this way; Jane got hit in the face but now we have a suspect to question, he took one for the team," she reasoned, looking to where Jane was waving off Lisbon's concerns with one hand and trying to stem the flow of blood from his nose with the other, "Also it doesn't hurt for him to get taken down a peg every so often." She said with a wink before she walked forward into the fray leaving Maggie to wonder what sort of team she had been working with.

~o~o~o~

The day after the case had been called up Agent Carter returned and Maggie was reassigned to his team. Her team mates were pleasant and professional and just a little bit dull. There was never any drama within the team which was run with an iron fist by Carter who was a man much like Agent Lisbon in the way that he commanded respect but less like her in the way that he expected his every order to be obeyed without question.

Maggie found herself fitting easily into the team and before she knew it she had been working there for three months.

Every now and then tales of Jane and the teams exploits would reach her ears and while she enjoyed hearing them she was never surprised at them. If she had learned one thing from her time working with the whole team it was that they were all mad. To varying degrees but mad anyway.

It was probably what made them work so well together but it was true. There was no way that anyone could put up with Jane and the drama that came with him for too long without going at least a little bit insane. But hey, if it worked for them who was she to question it?

…..

A/N- Thanks for reading it, I hope you liked it and if you did (or even if you hated it) drop me a line in a review J

All the best-VE


End file.
